Conn. AG Investigates `Smart Choices Food Labels

HARTFORD, Conn.Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal launched an investigation into a potentially misleading national food-label program that deems mayonnaise, sugar-laden cereals and other nutritionally suspect foods "Smart Choices."

The investigation seeks details about the consumer research and selection criteria driving the Smart Choices program; the process and fees involved in administering the program; and any payments or developmental role that major food manufacturers might have provided for the program.

Foods bearing the Smart Choices symbol include Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise (light and non-light), Breyers ice cream and sugary processed cereals such as Froot Loops, Cocoa Krispies, Frosted Flakes, Lucky Charms and Cocoa Puffs. The only Smart Choices beverages are Lipton products, excluding a vast majority of healthier food and beverage options.

"These so-called Smart Choices seem nutritionally suspectand the label potentially misleading," Blumenthal said. "The Smart Choices label adorns sugar-laden cereals appealing to children, but not many healthier breakfast choices. Our investigation asks what objective scientific standards, research or factual evidence justify labeling such products as 'smart'. We have serious concerns about the research and reasoning behind a program that promotes fat-saturated mayonnaise and sugar-studded cereals as nutritional smart choices. These concernspotentially misleading and deceptive labeling of nutritional valueapply to other supposed Smart Choices label products marketed to adults as well as children.

Blumenthal has requested information from Smart Choices Program, Inc., the organizations which administer the program (NSF International and American Society for Nutrition), and major food manufacturers whose products bear the Smart Choices label, including Kellogg Company, PepsiCo, Inc. and General Mills, Inc.